


Water Hot

by Dargelos (Dargie)



Category: Lord of the Rings (2001 2002 2003)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-11
Updated: 2010-01-11
Packaged: 2017-10-06 04:08:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/49516
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dargie/pseuds/Dargelos
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two adventurous hobbits find themselves up a tree, and in love.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Water Hot

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fic/gifts).



Among hobbits, the names Took and Brandybuck carried some weight. At least as much as hobbits ever accorded to any name. And in spite of the efforts of certain ne'er-do-well family members down through the generations, the names remained good. It was that, and the easy-going nature of hobbits which kept most people from judging too harshly the mischief of two younger members of those esteemed families.

The elder of the two, Meriadoc Brandybuck, should certainly have been a good example to his younger cousin, but he was still on the sunny side of his majority, and anyway, it was recognized that for all their position in hobbit society, the Brandybucks were an odd lot. The cousin, Peregrine Took, was generally excused from most criticism by virtue of his youthful charm. And because the Tooks were an odd lot as well, he was doubly excused. It was no surprise to the more sedate residents of the Shire that Tooks and Brandybucks intermarried.

"Like speaks to like," Floribunda Rose Boffin said to her sister Grandiflora Rose, who nodded gravely in deference to and agreement with her sister's wisdom. The elderly Boffin sisters sat together on their stoop, watching the world go by. And at that moment, the world was represented by the two young hobbits in question. The lads were walking along the Stock Road from Great Smials, heads together and obviously plotting something. "There's no use in denying that those two are wild lads," Floribunda added even as she waved to the wild lads.

"None whatsoever," Grandiflora agreed, waving.

"But you mark my words, sister," Floribunda said, voice rising to the Pitch of Weighty Pronouncement once the cousins were out of sight. "They'll make names for themselves for good or ill. Just you wait."

And Grandiflora felt a thrill ripple through her as she contemplated the future fame, or perhaps infamy (which was the more thrilling notion) of the two young hobbits who were at present, and unbeknownst to either Boffin, plotting over their elevenses (a few bites of honey cake and a pear each, taken on foot in deference to their mission) to raiding a farmer's field just past Tuckborough.

Their usual target was Farmer Maggot, whose farm lay closer to Brandy Hall. But as Merry was visiting his cousins at Great Smials, and there were unplundered farms all around, it was decided between himself and Pip that a foraging expedition should be mounted directly after second breakfast. With luck, whatever they acquired would round out the rather good lunch that they'd packed for themselves before they left the house.

It was for the sake of their stomachs almost more than the preservation of ten fingers, ten toes and unscathed bottoms that Pip had most unfortunately failed to remember that the farmer in question - Goodman Mallow was his name - was the owner of three large, and brutishly unfriendly dogs. A fact that Merry pointed out to Pippin as they sat perched in an oak tree at the edge Farmer Mallow's south field. The one with all those lovely radishes that went so well on liberally buttered fresh bread with just a touch of salt.

"Pip, you nearly got us killed," Merry accused, looking longingly across the field to where a stand of apple trees fairly dripped a harvest of honey-sweets, Merry's favorite apple. "Savaged, at least."

"Not even close," Pip insisted. "The dogs didn't get within three feet of us." He was flushed from the sprint across the field and up the tree, and looked perfectly adorable, a fact which had not escaped Merry, though he was trying hard not to think about it.

"I beg to differ. The seat of my trousers felt their wrath."

"Did they? Let's see."

Merry, balancing carefully on his branch, bent over to show Pip where Mallow's biggest dog, a liver-colored beast with fierce yellow eyes, had ventilated his trousers.

"Oh, you're right!" Pip said gleefully. "I can see your bottom." And a sly finger poked its way through one of the holes and tickled Merry. "That's because you're fatter than I am and older. You'd be slower." And then, as a scandalized afterthought: "Don't you wear underwear?"

Merry sat back down on the branch and made a face. "Not in this heat." Down below, the dogs were baying, and leaping at the tree. Farmer Mallow strolled up, apparently secure in his dogs' abilities to take care of any trespassers. He stared up into the tree and laughed.

"Peregrine Took, is that you, you rascal?"

"Yes sir, it's me," Pip yelled down.

"Up to some tricks?"

"Just out for a walk," Pip insisted.

"Who's your friend?"

"My cousin, Merry Brandybuck."

"This your pack?" Mallow said, holding up the sack they'd packed their luncheon in.

"Yessir, it's our lunch."

"So I see." Mallow pawed through the contents, taking a sandwich (bacon, tomato and cheese on that wonderful, oniony rye bread Pippin's aunt Poppy was famous for. Fresh that morning!) for himself, and tossing the rest to his dogs. "I expect that'll teach you two to stay on your own property, won't it?" And he strolled off with the sandwich (Merry could still smell the bacon and onion in the air.) leaving his dogs to spoil what was left.

"He took our food!" Pip announced rather unnecessarily.

"You're quick that way, Pip. In case you hadn't noticed, he also left those brutes down there. We can't leave this tree until they go home."

"Oh," said Pip. "Oh. No luncheon."

"Nor tea nor supper, maybe," Merry added.

Pippin's face was a mask of horror and grief. "We'll die!"

Merry sighed heavily, and then yawned, somewhat spoiling the effect. "We could build a nest and live up here," he said, feeling silly.

They were quiet for a time, watching the dogs eat their food.

"So, why don't you wear underwear?" Pippin asked at last.

"Too hot."

"You haven't done that all your life. Your mother wouldn't ever have let you go out without at least two layers."

"Sometimes three or four depending on the temperature and her mood," Merry replied, laughing a little at the memory of himself as a tiny hobbit, so bundled against the cold that he could barely waddle out the door of Brandy Hall to play in the snow. "I didn't expect to get my trews ripped," he admitted, shifting as a twig poked through one of the holes in his trousers.

"I'm sorry," Pip said, sounding less than contrite. "Let me see."

"You saw."

"I didn't see if you were hurt. I was too agitated."

"I'm not hurt."

"Let me see anyway, just to be sure. You want my trews?"

"No."

"You want my pants?"

"Pip!"

"What? Bend over then and let me check and see if you were bitten."

"I wasn't bitten!" Merry insisted, but nevertheless he did as he was bid.

He felt Pip's fingers against his skin, his unbroken and miraculously unabraded skin. Suddenly Merry had a bigger problem than torn trousers. "Pip, stop it."

"Stop what?"

"Touching me. Like that." Merry tried to pull away and stand up, but he very nearly fell off the branch.

"Steady," Pip yelped, catching hold of his cousin and discovering that Merry had something interesting in the front of his trousers as well. "Merry, you've got..."

"I know what I've got." He steadied himself and pushed Pip's hands away. "Don't go grabbing at it or you'll get a reputation."

"For what?"

Oh surely he couldn't be that naïve. "For playing games with other lads," Merry said with a sniff.

"Do you?"

"What?"

"Play with other lads."

Merry very nearly lied, but in the end he decided that this was his cousin and his best friend. He'd best be truthful. "Yes." And in the silence that followed, he searched desperately for something to say to take the weight out of that admission, to make it a joke. But before he could force the truth into a different shape, Pip surprised him.

Pip kissed him.

"Pip!"

"What? Don't you kiss when you...play?"

"It's not that," Merry said, wondering what it was.

"Then what is it?" Pip asked, putting him on the spot.

"Well it's...you and I. Pip, we're..."

"Best friends up a tree with nothing to eat, and all the time in the world to talk about things we'd never talk about on the ground." Sometimes Pip surprised him by being far older inside than out. In spite of his embarrassment, Merry laughed.

"True," he admitted and kissed Pip back, shivering just a little as Pippin's honey-sweet mouth opened to him, and he felt the silky glide of his cousin's tongue against his own. "Oh, Pip," he breathed. "Oh, Pip." That little problem of his was getting worse.

"See? It worked out all right after all," Pippin told him as they licked each other's lips like hungry little animals.

"Mm-hmmm." Whatever Pip was saying was just fine with Merry who was only a bit bemused to feel his cousin's hand inside his trews.

"Could be worse, could be ra--" Pip fell silent.

Something damp struck Merry's face and he wondered for a moment what Pip was doing. Then he got hit again and realized that it was raining. Rather hard.

"Scratch that last bit," Pip said.

They turned cautiously, clinging to their branch, and were horrified to see great, seething black clouds rolling up behind them. "Oh dear," Pippin said, understating the situation dramatically in Merry's opinion.

"Oh dear? Pip we don't have to worry about the dogs anymore. We're going to get killed by lightning up here."

"You're an alarmist," Pip accused. All the same, he was looking uncomfortable. The rain was pelting down now, so hard that even the roof of oak leaves above them didn't keep them from getting soaked. "At least the dogs look as miserable as we do now."

"Though rather more well-fed," Merry pointed out.

The dogs were circling uneasily beneath the tree, pelted by the rain and churning up the ground into a nasty mix of mud, fallen leaves and the remnants of the hobbits' lunch. They were obviously anxious to get out of the rain, too, and when a long, sharp whistle drifted across the field, they ran off without a look back. Farmer Mallow had called his monsters home.

"Let's get out of this tree before we fall out," Pip suggested, edging towards the main trunk and looking for a way down and finding no obviously footholds. "I think we're stuck!"

"Don't be daft. We got up here, didn't we?" Merry swung easily down to a lower branch and held his hand out to Pippin. "Just slide forward a bit, Pip," he coached. But as Pippin was edging down towards his cousin, the storm began to blow in earnest, and even the big limbs of the old oak started swaying. And two young hobbits found themselves lying in the mud under the tree.

"Ow," Pippin said, once again stating the obvious.

Merry lay in the mud, letting the rain pour down on top of him, and finally relaxed. "At least we're down," he managed, hoping all the while that he hadn't broken every bone in his body. Finally, loathe to drown in the worsening storm, he scrambled to his feet. "Let's get out of here."

"You go, I think I'll just lie here for a while. Until everything stops hurting."

"You'll be dead by then. Come on!" Merry hauled Pip to his feet and they began to run. The sky had gone ominously dark, a sign that the worst was yet to come.

They were nearly to the Stock Road when Pip dragged Merry along a little path heading north. "What're you doing?" Merry shouted, trying to be heard over the roar of the wind and thunder.

"There's shelter off to the north, Merry, c'mon!" He was right, there was a small shelter just at the edge of the forest, holding a bare cot, a chair and a lamp. "I found this on my way back from Hobbiton one day," Pippin explained. "I think it must be a hunter's shack."

They settled into the little hut to wait for the worst of the storm to pass. They were tired, hungry, sore and covered with mud, but Merry felt surprisingly happy just to be there alone with his beloved cousin who had opened up a whole new world of possibilities up in that tree. He wanted desperately to go on kissing Pip, but now that they were back on the ground, would that even be possible?

"Pip..." he began, but stopped short when he saw his cousin get up and start to undress.

"You're soaked too, Merry, why don't you get out of your things? There's a blanket or two here somewhere."

Somewhere? There wasn't much somewhere to hide a blanket in, Merry thought, as he stripped off his ruined clothes, grateful to be rid of their clammy embrace for a time.

They draped their things on a rickety wooden chair, though Merry didn't hold out much hope that anything would dry with the air so saturated. He opened the door and looked out. The rain was falling in sheets.

"It'll be bad for a while yet," Pip forecast. "Come and lie down."

Merry turned to see his cousin, his very naked cousin, lying on the cot, under a thin blanket. There was no way to hide the emotions the sight provoked in him, and Pippin grinned.

"Is that for me?" he asked, as Merry tried desperately to decide if he should pretend that nothing was amiss or clap his hands over his erection and apologize.

"Um, yes."

"Then why don't you come over here and give umyes to me?" Pip flipped the blanket back in invitation.

Merry settled in beside Pip and they snuggled down under the blanket, damp skin to damp skin. "You don't seem bothered by any of this," he remarked. Then he realized what he'd just said and added. "Pip...how much experience have you had?"

Pip began to kiss Merry's face, softly, sweetly. "Do you want a list of my playmates?"

"Well no," Merry replied quickly. Then he thought better of it and said, "Well, not a list." The feel of Pip's hands on his flesh was so...so perfect. He closed his eyes and stretched his arms up over his head, arching into the clever touches.

"An approximate count? I'll tell you if you tell me."

"What?" Merry breathed as a hungry mouth fastened on one nipple and teased it into aching rigidity.

"Who you've been with."

"Someday," Merry promised and he enfolded his darling, amazing cousin in his arms, kissing him enthusiastically. Pip wrapped his legs around Merry's thighs and they rocked slowly on the creaking cot, mouths pressed together, hands so greedy for the touch of loved, longed-for flesh that they would leave bruises.

And then suddenly it was on them both. Merry gave a little cry as he climaxed against Pip's belly. Seconds later he felt another sweet release against his own, and heard Pip moan "Merry, Merry, Merry," in a hoarse, breathy voice that made Merry catch his love's face between his own hands and try to kiss away the fat tears that he found there. He didn't know which of them had been weeping, but he knew it was for the joy of a first, best love.

"Oh Pip, Pip, my love, my own," he whispered and was shocked to hear Pippin laugh.

"Oh...wonderful Merry, I feared this might never happen. I'm so glad, so glad." Pip's hand stroked his face, fingers combed through his curls. "I wanted you so much."

"You did?"

"For such a long time." Pip kissed him. More half a kiss, half a smile against Merry's lips. "Did you want me?"

It was Merry's turn to laugh. "You couldn't tell?"

"You mean this," Pip said, running his fingers through the mess on his belly, "isn't a response to getting mauled, starved, soaked and dropped twenty feet into a bog?"

"Maybe a bit." He licked Pip's fingers clean, then, enchanted by the taste of them all mixed up together, he began to lick at Pippin's soggy parts, making the younger hobbit giggle. "I want to devour you," he said, right up against Pip's belly button, and again before he captured the softened cock and lapped at it as if it was honeyed.

What little light they had faded, and at last they untwined themselves and noticed that the rain had stopped.

"We'd best get home," said Merry, the sensible one. He tried hard not to look down at Pippin, sprawled on the cot in gleeful abandon, half senseless with their loving. They struggled into damp clothing with a kiss for each button done up properly, and just before sunset set out for Great Smials through the soaked forest. Pip knew the way even in the settling darkness, and found the road easily. They walked hand-in-hand the whole way. They were both a little stiff from the fall, but on the whole, blissfully happy.

When great aunt Heliotrope saw them she flipped her apron up over her face and squawked like a broody hen. "What have you two been doing?" she demanded, once the apron fluttered down and she took a good, long look at them.

Merry felt himself go crimson and he tried to stammer out some explanation that didn't have to do with rubbing or licking or stroking, but Pip just said, quite calmly "We've been having adventures in the rain."

"Well you look like you've been having them in the pigsty, Peregrine, my lad. All muddy...and look at your backside, Meriadoc!" she exclaimed, though of course it was just an expression, because he couldn't very well see his own backside. Pip made a great show of looking and being surprised. He smirked a bit at Merry as he said "That must've happened when you slid down the embankment in the rain, Merry."

"Must have done," Merry agreed, trying not to laugh out loud.

"I'll warrant you two have been getting into hot water," aunt Heliotrope decided, and took off her apron, throwing to Merry. "Make yourself decent, lad, until you get to the bath. I'm about to put you both into some hot water now."

Along the way they collected aunt Poppy and several of Pippin's smaller cousins who were of no earthly use but who enjoyed watching the bathwater steam and the sweet herbs and flower petals float around, perfuming air and water. When the tub was filled, Heliotrope shooed the children out and collected the muddied, torn clothing.

"I'll see these are patched," she told Merry, holding up his trousers. "Go on and soak, lads."

"Aunt Poppy, we're awfully hungry. We haven't eaten since...lunch."

"Not since lunch? Poor lambs," Poppy exclaimed as Heliotrope inspected the damage to the boys as they climbed into the tub.

"You two have a lot of bruises and marks," she observed. "You must've had quite an adventure."

"Very exciting," Pip told her.

Once they'd settled into the bath, and the heat started to sink into them, stiff muscles relaxed, and feeling of peace settled onto Merry. It was possibly the most perfect moment of his life, lying in the hot, scented bathwater, Pippin - his sweet cousin and sweeter lover - opposite him, their feet rubbing together underwater. Aunt Poppy brought them a light meal of toast with butter and cheese and a few thin slices of ham, hot tea with cream and honey, a few jam tarts and a slice of plum cake each.

Life was good.

They were washing the last cake crumbs off themselves in the cooling water when Pippin reached over and laid his fingers over the bruises on Merry's wrist. His fingers fit the marks perfectly and they book looked up, into one another's eyes and smiled.

"I shall have to be more careful of you, dear cousin," Pippin murmured, "if we are to love like this for the rest of our lives."

Merry, the sensible one, said "We're still only tweens, Pip. How can we know if this will last?"

"We can't know. But I think it might. It feels right," he said, planting a quick kiss on Merry's lips. "I want it to be." And in truth, so did Merry.

After their bath, Pippin led Merry into his own room. When Aunt Heliotrope came in to say good-night, she found them cuddled together.

"Merry will be sleeping in here from now on," Pip told her. Merry could feel Pip's heart racing.

Heliotrope studied them both and nodded. "That's probably as it should be. Sleep well, lads," she said before shut the door behind her.

Like calls to like.


End file.
